notes for authors Acta Crystallographica Section A Foundations and Notes for authors Advances Accepted 28 April 2014 ISSN 2053-2733 1. Scientific scope 2.4. Feature Articles Section A of Acta Crystallographica publishes articles reporting Feature Articles are focused surveys covering recent advances in advances in the theory and practice of all areas of crystallography an area of current research. A brief introduction should provide and structural science in the widest sense. As well as traditional historical perspective and a brief conclusion should indicate likely crystallography, this includes nanocrystals, metacrystals, amorphous future directions. Inclusion of relevant new results is appropriate. materials, quasicrystals, synchrotron and XFEL studies, coherent Feature Articles will generally be about ten journal pages (10 000 scattering, diffraction imaging, time-resolved studies and the struc- words). Shorter articles on rapidly evolving areas are also actively ture of strain and defects in materials. encouraged. The central themes are, on the one hand, experimental and theo- retical studies of the properties and arrangements of atoms, ions and 2.5. Letters to the Editor molecules in condensed matter, and, on the other, the theoretical and These may deal with non-technical aspects of crystallography, its experimental aspects of the various methods to determine these role, its propagation, the proper function of its Societies etc., or may properties and arrangements. make a technical observation or scientific comment that would usefully be brought to a wider audience. Letters should be submitted to the Section Editors. 2. Categories of contributions The journal comprises two sections: Advances and Foundations. 2.6. Scientific Commentaries Articles that are likely to be of high impact and broad interest will Scientific Commentaries discuss articles of particular importance be considered for the Advances section of the journal. They will for the readership of the journal. Suggestions for suitable topics and benefit from rapid publication (normally 6–8 weeks from submission) of potential author(s) are welcomed by the Section Editors. and may be accompanied by a Scientific Commentary (see x2.6) written for a scientifically literate audience and a press release upon publication. Authors may request that their article is considered for 3. Submission and handling of articles the Advances section when they submit their article (see http:// journals.iucr.org/a/services/submit.html for more details). 3.1. Submission Contributions should conform to the general editorial style of the Articles should be submitted at http://journals.iucr.org/a/services/ journal. Typical articles may be viewed by going to http://journals. submit.html. Full instructions for submitting an article and details iucr.org/a/sample_issue.html. Articles should be written with a wide of the files required are given at http://journals.iucr.org/a/services/ scientific audience in mind. submitinstructions.html. Authors are encouraged to use the templates available from http://journals.iucr.org/a/services/helpsubmit.html.If 2.1. Research Papers the article reports a crystal structure, a CIF should be supplied (http:// journals.iucr.org/a/services/cifinfo.html). Full-length Research Papers should not normally exceed 15 journal The contact author must provide an e-mail address for all editorial pages (about 15 000 words). communications and despatch of proofs and electronic reprints. 2.2. Short Communications 3.2. File format Short Communications are intended for the presentation of topics The source files required for an article are: a single file in Word, of limited scope or for preliminary announcements of novel research OpenOffice or LATEX format of the text, tables and figure captions of findings. They are not intended for interim reports of work in the article; a high-resolution graphics file (minimum 600 d.p.i.) in progress, and must report results that are of scientific value in their TIFF, PostScript, encapsulated PostScript or PNG format for each own right. figure and scheme; and files of any supporting information. These Short Communications should not normally exceed two journal should be uploaded as described in the online submission instruc- pages (about 1500 words). tions. 2.3. Lead Articles 3.3. Handling of articles Lead Articles are authoritative, comprehensive and forward- Advances articles will be seen by the Section Editors before peer looking reviews of major areas of research interest. Suggestions for review. suitable topics and of potential author(s) are welcomed by the Each article is handled by an editor chosen by the author from a Section Editors. list of those available at the time of submission. Authors should The Section Editors will discuss the treatment of the topic, the choose an editor whose area of expertise most closely matches the length of the Article and the delivery date of the article with invited subject of the article. Details of the current Editorial Board can be author(s). found at http://journals.iucr.org/a/services/editors.html. Acta Cryst. (2014). A70, 303–307 doi:10.1107/S2053273313022894 303 notes for authors All contributions will be seen by referees (normally two) before for a new review and, finally, to the Editor-in-chief of IUCr Journals if they can be accepted for publication. The editor to whom the article is the author is still aggrieved by the decision. The initial appeal must be assigned is responsible for choosing referees and for accepting or made within three months of rejection of the article. The decision of rejecting the article. This responsibility includes decisions on the final the Editor-in-chief is final. form of the article and interpretation of these Notes when necessary. Further information on the peer-review process can be found at http://journals.iucr.org/a/services/peerreview.html. 3.6. Copyright Changes to an article requested by the Section Editors, Except as required otherwise by national laws, an author will be Co-editor or the editorial staff should be received within two months required to agree to the transfer of copyright before an article can be of transmittal to the author, otherwise the submission will be accepted. Authors selecting open access do not need to transfer considered as withdrawn. If an article is not acceptable after two copyright. Details of author rights can be found at http://journals. revisions it will not be considered further. Any subsequent commu- iucr.org/services/authorrights.html. nication of the material will be treated as a new submission in the editorial process. An article that has been rejected must not be resubmitted to any IUCr journal unless the reasons given for the 3.7. Open access rejection have been fully addressed in the revised version. After initial submission, any revised or new files should be Authors are given the opportunity to make their articles ‘open uploaded at the web address provided only in response to a specific access’ on Crystallography Journals Online. Authors of open-access request from an editor. articles will not be asked to transfer copyright to the IUCr, but will For accepted articles, it is the responsibility of the Managing Editor instead be asked to agree to an open-access licence. This licence is to prepare the article for publication. This may involve correspon- identical to the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) Licence. dence with the authors and/or the responsible editor in order to Further details can be found at http://journals.iucr.org/services/ resolve ambiguities or to obtain satisfactory figures or tables. The openaccess.html. date of acceptance that will appear on the published article is the date on which the Managing Editor receives the last item required. Contact details for the Managing Editor of Section A can be found at 3.8. Publication fees http://journals.iucr.org/services/contactus.html. There are no fees for colour figures or electronic reprints. If On rare occasions, an editor may consider that an article is better authors require open access or printed reprints there is a charge and suited to another IUCr journal. Any change to the journal of publi- details will be given at the proof stage. cation will only be made after full discussion with the contact author. Articles will be checked for plagiarism using the CrossCheck service. 3.4. Author’s warranty 4. Article preparation The submission of an article is taken as an implicit guarantee that 4.1. General information the work is original, that it is the author(s) own work, that all authors Before preparing articles, authors should consult a current issue of are aware of and concur with the submission, that all workers the journal to make themselves familiar with the general format, involved in the study are listed as authors or given proper credit in such as the use of headings, layout of tables and citation of the acknowledgements, that the article has not already been references. A sample issue is available at http://journals.iucr.org/a/ published (in any language or medium), and that it is not being sample_issue.html. considered and will not be offered elsewhere while under consid- All contributions must be accompanied by an English language eration for an IUCr journal. The inclusion of material in an informal Abstract, and a one or two sentence Synopsis of the main findings of publication, e.g. a preprint server or a newsletter, does not preclude the article for inclusion in the Table of Contents. Authors should also publication in an IUCr journal. supply at least five keywords. The co-authors of an article should be all those persons who have The Abstract should state as specifically and as quantitatively as made significant scientific contributions to the work reported, possible the principal results obtained and their significance. For including the ideas and their execution, and who share responsibility Research Papers, Lead Articles or Feature Articles the Abstract should and accountability for the results.